Snow Country
by Tomaria
Summary: Kaiba Corporation has a new business venture: Kaiba Winter Resort, and in honor of it's grand opening KC is holding another tournament. This time on the slopes of Mt. Kaiba.


**Snow Country**

**--_Chapter 1_**

By Tomaria

_Disclaimer: Usual I hate all those who own Yu-Gi-Oh! because I don't. Takahashi-san, still love ya, but now that you're done with it, you wane sell me the rights to your manga? Pretty please? With sugar on top? FINE THEN! Maybe I'll just be come the next Kaiba Seto and BUY IT FROM YOU! Or maybe not…_

A/N: First off, please realize this is in NO WAY supposed to be serious or even thought-provoking. I'm on a ski trip now. I can't get this out of my head. It's a simple as that. When you read it, I'd suggest thinking of it as an anime episode. Subbed. Of course. Play any of the random OST tracks playing in the background. And don't put to much thought into it. It's just supposed to be one of those fun, happy, makes you laugh sorta fics. As for when it fits in on the Yu-Gi-Oh! timeline, I'm gonna have to say after Atemu leaves. **huggles and snuggles Atemu and never lets go** RIP, Atemu-san… we'll miss you. Anyways, I was thinking about "Well, what about after Duelist Kingdom?" but then we hadn't met everyone. "Fine, what about after Battle City/Ship but before the Memory Arc?" No, because they go to Egypt during the summer, I'm guessing because that would be the only time they'd have a long enough break, and since this is a "skiing related fic", you kinda need snow. And I know that Japan has snow as late as July, and believe me I wanted to add a part where Atemu gets on a pair of skis and freaks out, think: Episode 53, the Attack of the Pigeons!, but since it needs to be _after_ he leaves, alas he cannot make a fool of himself. Damn that would have been good though! Well, this is long A/N is long enough. You know the drill. Read and Review!

--------------------

_"The train came out of the long tunnel into the snow country. The early lay white under the night sky."_

_                                                                                                                        --Yuzawa Echigo, Nobel Prize Winning Author_

             "YOSHI! Now _this_ is what I call a winter vacation!" Jounouchi threw his bags onto the porter and ran through the rotating door about a thousand times before finally entering into the lobby.

             "Jounouchi!"

             "Jounouchi-kun…"

            Mazaki Anzu yelled at the currently, though some would argue perpetually, insane blonde who was practically jumping up and down and then looked in defeat at Mutou Yugi. They both gave up trying to control their friend, it was winter vacation after all.

             "Yo! Minna! You made it!"

             "Mokuba-kun!" Anzu and Yugi looked up to see the young boy and co-owner of the resort they were staying in. 

            "Mokuba? Doko?" Jounouchi looked out from the second floor banister that he had somehow managed to get onto.

             "Down here, baka." Mokuba stated unenthusiastically while rolling his eyes.

             "OI! Mokuba! Gimme a sec." Jounouchi grinned stupidly as he jumped over the barrier only to land on his friend as he came walking in.

             "Anzu…You brought more stuff than m—Jounouchi!" Honda Hiroto ended up sprawled in a mess of luggage with Jounouchi on top of him, still grinning stupidly. Bakura Ryou, carrying suitcases that blocked his view, ended tripping over the mess that was sprawled out in front of him.

             "Ba. Ka." Mokuba slapped a hand to forehead. "Niisama!"

            Kaiba Seto had joined in witnessing of the obliteration of his new lobby. "Bonkotsu, why are you destroying my resort?"

             "Kaiba… TEME!" Jounouchi jumped up ready for a fight, though one would assume after so long that he'd figure out he wouldn't get one right away.

             "Hmph." Seto merely stood there with his arms crossed. "Isono."

             "AH!" Seto's main bodyguard appeared from where ever he was always hiding ready for his President's orders.

             "Make sure all their bags get in their rooms. Put their equipment in the locker room. And give them their keys."

             "Hai, Seto-sama." Isono motioned and two more guards mysteriously appeared. Honda and Bakura blinked as all the suitcases around them disappeared. 

             "Your lift tickets are in your rooms. And I'd recommend going for some runs now, because you'll be busy tomorrow." Seto turned around and walked away, Mokuba in tow, laughing that sadistic, doom-impending laugh that only he can do.

             "Aitsu…" Jounouchi backed out of his fighting stance only to be lunged on by Honda.

             "Jounouchi! Next time you jump make sure I'm not underneath you!" Jounouchi got removed himself from Honda's headlock and put him in a full nelson.

             "Honda! Next time I jump, make sure _you're_ not underneath _ME_!"

             "Nee… Jounouchi-kun, Honda-kun." Yugi tried to calm them down but realize that was just as futile as his first attempt. Bakura held them same opinion and smiled powerlessly at Yugi. Anzu, however, was starting to boil over.

             "Futari-domo! Ikou." And she did. She grabbed one ear of each and dragged both boys of to their rooms.

             "I-i-i-i-itttaaaiii!" 

            Yugi and Bakura followed Anzu and the two prisoners to their rooms, but none of them noticed the three newest guests who had just entered the lobby.

            Anzu slipped one foot into her snowboard bindings and snapped it in. "Ikou!"

             "Darling! Minna! Matte o!" 

             "Eh..?" Yugi turned around into a hug from Rebecca Hopkins. "R-Rebecca…"

             "Darling! I've missed you!" Rebecca just hugged Yugi tighter, which naturally caused Anzu to simmer with irritation. Yugi could only stand there. Helplessly.

             "Yugi-kun. Minna-san. Konnichiwa." Otogi Ryuuji appeared holding two pairs of skis and poles. Apparently, Rebecca had thrown hers at him once she's seen Yugi. 

             "Otogi! Dochirahe?!" Honda ran up beside the new arrival and elbowed him in the arm, almost causing him to loose both pairs of skis.

             "Fine… Why?" Otogi responded skeptically as he readjusted his grip on his set and handed the other back to Rebecca. 

             "Have you heard anything from Shizuka-chan? Hmmm….?!" Honda pestered.

             "Maybe I have." Otogi had a mischievous gleam in his eye as he put on his skis.

             "Ikou, ne minna? Darling?" Rebecca linked arms with Yugi once she had her skis on and the two made their way towards the quad lift, though she spared a moment to stick her tongue out at Anzu.

             "Rebecca….." She muttered under her breath, trying to keep her temper. "Eh? Matte o! Yugi!" Anzu yelled as she boarded down to the lift line as well, not to be left behind by some pre-teen genius.

             "Saa… Hayaku, Honda-kun, and maybe I'll tell you how Shizuka-chan is." Otogi taunted as he smoothly pushed himself towards the lift with perfect form that made Honda strap his foot onto his board so fast he almost fell over. 

            Once he was behind Otogi, Honda realized the group was…lacking. Lacking a certain uncontrolled quality. "Oi…Where's Jounouchi?"

            The others looked around, but Anzu was the first to recognize it. "Bakura-kun as well…"

            Their question was soon answered when the two came out of the ski-in, ski-out snack bar. Jounouchi was carrying a jumbo cup of hot coco and two huge chocolate chip cookies while Bakura looked longingly in his empty wallet.

            "Jounouchi! Bakura-kun!" Anzu yelled and waved to two over to their spots in line just as she, Yugi, and Rebecca (because she had no intention of letting Rebecca go all the way up the 1000m lift alone with Yugi) got on the lift. "We'll meet you at the top!"

            "Ah!" Honda replied with a wave, and the four men stood in line for the next chair. "Jounouchi, we were going to eat after this run!"

            "We were?" Bakura asked in disbelief as he put his now lighter wallet away.

            "But I was hungry!" Jounouchi answered simply between biting a cookie in half and taking a swig of his coco. 

            Once at the top, glided towards the trail map only to run into three familiar faces. Literally. Jounouchi was too busy drinking the last of his coco to look where he was going and ran strait into a tall Arab man with a long black pony tail. 

            "O-omae!" Jounouchi stuttered as the man he ran into helped him up. "Rishid!"

            "How have you been, Jounouchi?"

            "Ishizu-san! Malik!" Yugi finally broke away from Rebecca and went to say hello to his old friends.

            "Konnichiwa, minna-san. We missed you when we arrived; you were already heading up to you rooms." Ishizu nodded to the group.

            "Oh! Gomen!" Anzu blushed, remembering just _how_ they was heading towards the elevator. Ishizu just smiled and giggled slightly.

            "Yugi, it's been a while hasn't it?" Malik said, shaking Yugi's hand.

            "Too long." Yugi agreed. "Where were you headed?"

            "We weren't sure." Malik took his pole and pointed to where they were currently on the map. "We were thinking about taking Shishasosen over to the—" Suddenly, a laugh broke through the planning. A laugh that most of the group had heard before. Jounouchi, however, was the first to place it.

            "That laugh… Mai!" As if she'd been waiting for her entrance to be announced, Kujyaku Mai came bursting through the trees, airborne and silhouetted against the winter sun. She was followed closely by another long haired skier, and both landed slightly uphill of the group, spraying them all with snow.

            "Jounouchi! How unthoughtful of you to not invite your sister!" Mai teased as Jounouchi wiped the snow out of his eyes to see Kawai Shizuka standing in front of him.

            "Shizuka!"

            "Konnichiwa, oniichan!" Shizuka waved to her brother.

            "Shizuka-chan!" Otogi and Honda both shouted to the young girl, and then glared at each other. In a flash, both of them tried to get uphill to her and fell flat on their faces. Shizuka stared at the two in disbelief and then skied down to her brother with Mai.

            "Anou… Darling… Who are these people?" Rebecca skied forward and linked arms with Yugi again. Anzu grew red with jealousy.

            "Oh! That's right, you don't know everyone. Rebecca, this is Ishizu Ishtahl-san, Director of the Egyptian Bureau of Archeology, and her brothers Malik and Rishid." At this comment, Rishid was taken slightly aback, but Malik grinned at him and nodded. "And over there…" Yugi pointed to a heated argument between Mai and Jounouchi, Shizuka standing helplessly by, and Otogi and Honda still trying to climb uphill on their stomachs to Jounouchi's sister, "Mai-san and Shizuka, Jounouchi-kun's little sister. And Bakura-kun." Yugi motioned to the white haired boy trying to help both Otogi and Honda up, only to fall down with them.

            "Minna… _MINNA!!_" Anzu yelled over all the commotion to get everyone's attention, but it was mainly to stop Rebecca from hogging Yugi. "Do you wanna go for a run or not?"

            "But where should we go?" Otogi asked, finally smart enough to get out of his bindings and stand up.

            "Let's just go, all path's lead to the bottom _somehow_." Mai stated plainly. With the group in agreement, those on the ground managed to get up, and those with snowboards locked their loose feet into their bindings. 

            "IKOU!" Rebecca shouted and was just about to lead the group down the slope when a strong wind blew up from nowhere, closely followed by the sounds of rotary helicopter blades. Everyone looked up to see a helicopter against the sun, and two figures jumping out of it. One of which was laughing.

            The Kaiba brothers landed uphill of the group and weaved through them until they were just downhill, stylish as always, and always proud after making an entrance. 

            "Kaiba! TEME!" Jounouchi jumped up for a fight once again, but this time forgot that both of his feet were locked in his board bindings. Instead of showing he was ready for a fight, he landed face first in the snow and slid down the trail between Mokuba and Seto until he was downhill of them. 

            "Oniichan!" Shizuka skied after her brother to see if he was alright.

            "Jounochi-kun!" Yugi broke free from Rebecca and rode over to his friend, followed by Honda, Bakura, and Anzu. Otogi skied down with Rebecca and they both stared at each other in disbelief. Mai put a hand to her forehead and shook her head and then skied down to the "idiot" as she'd called him. Malik pushed himself towards the conglomeration in the middle of the trail, and Rishid followed. Ishizu went after Rishid and stopped uphill of the mass to avoid being hit with one of Jounouchi's appendages As everyone tried to help Jounouchi up, the blonde was insistent on yelling insults at Kaiba and flailing around. The scene was enough to make anyone laugh, and naturally, Seto did. 

            "Fall down, bonkotsu?" Seto asked mockingly and then laughed again. Before his cackle was through, he had already taken off down the slope. He narrowed his eyes at the group, looking for a challenge, and though he dismissed it in his mind because they were all busy helping the fool, he found one. Ishizu met Seto's piercing glare and shoved off after her presumed opponent.

            Mokuba had been following his brother but stopped so quickly he fell over as Ishizu sped in front of him. He stared after the two, as did the rest of the group, in surprise. Jounouchi had stopped struggling, and everyone had frozen in place. Malik was the first to break the silence.

            "GANBATTE, NEESAN!"

            "She'll never catch him. Niisama's too good." Mokuba retorted.

            "So is Ishizu-sama." Rishid countered, and everyone's heads turned from Rishid to the empty slope below them.

A/N: Think of this as the commercial break. **plays the commercial break music from the show: doo doo do doo do… do do do do do** Anyways… I do realize that I used _a LOT_ of Japanese, so feel free to reference my "Hardly Complete, Hardly Correct, Quick and Easy Japanese Guide". And then review!

            YOSHI                        An exclamation of joy, such as "Alright!" (The _i_ is silent.)

            MINNA                       "Everyone." _Minna-san_ is formal.

            DOKO                        "Where." _Doko__ desu ka?_ or _Doko__ da?_ would be more correct, but this is Jounouchi, he's not correct.

            BAKA                         "Idiot." Mokuba calls Jounouchi this a lot.

            NIISAMA                   "(Honorable) big brother", what Mokuba _always_ calls Seto.

            BONKOTSU              "Mediocre/Average", what Seto always calls Jounouchi. (An insult to Jounouchi, but a statement of fact in reality)

            TEME                          "Bastard".

            HAI                             "Yes."

            AITSU                         "That guy."

            NE(E)                          "Hey…" in this sense.

            FUTARI-DOMO         "You two." What Anzu says to Honda and Jounouchi a lot.

            IKOU                          "Let's go" informally.

            ITAI                             "OUCH!" more or less.

            MATTE O                   "Wait for me!" as a command.

            KONNICHIWA          "Good day/afternoon" depending on the time.

            DOCHIRAHE             "How are you?"

            HAYAKU                   "Hurry up" in this sense.

            OMAE                         "You" in the rough terms that most men use.

            GOMEN                      "I'm sorry" plainly.

            ONIICHAN                "Big brother" in a childish way.

            ANOU                         "Um…"            

            GANBATTE                "Go for it!"

            NEESAN                     "Older sister", what Malik always calls Ishizu.

And we all know this is going to get longer next chapter, ne? So study, there'll be a test later! ^_~ And yes, I'm sorry! But I couldn't help it! I just _HAD_ to add in some TrustShipping. Just wait till you get back from the commercial break!

Jaa!

-- Tomaria

(a.k.a. Aria-chan)

PS: I didn't make myself quite as clear as I wanted to. So here are the stats (in order of arrival on the trail):

            Snowboarders: 5 (Anzu, Yugi, Honda, Jounouchi, Mokuba)

            Skiers: 9 (Rebecca, Otogi, Bakura, Rishid, Ishizu, Malik, Mai, Shizuka, Seto)

And as for outfits… whatever you think. I mean, Seto's still in some kind of trench coat, ski coat thing and Mokuba's probably in the same thing he always wears because that practically doubles for boarding clothes. Shizuka's in something pink, Mai something purple. Rebecca something girly, Bakura something plain. Otogi something fashionable, Malik and Rishid something all black. Ishizu something off white and the rest of the group in whatever they were wearing in that picture during the first ending of YGODM. Right, I'm officially leaving now. Good night.


End file.
